I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with cover songs. As a songwriter I feel that original songs is where the artistry lies. As a performer it’s fun to do covers but I always felt like a bit of a cop out because it’s an easy way to engage an audience without earning it. Unless, like me, you like to screw with your audience by doing really obscure covers.

Then there’s YouTube where a cute girl or two will do an acoustic cover of some pop-song-du-jour and garner over a million views. Case in point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae-qoFPINCc. Meanwhile my original songs languish in an obscurity deeper than the covers I perform.

But in this whole equation there was one thing I never considered: What happens if someone were to cover a song of mine? Surely in that case I’d flip-flop and sing the praises of doing covers? Well, normally no…I’d easily avoid the embarrassment of flip-flopping because the notion of someone covering me seemed laughable. I mean, I can’t even employ the sentence “My YouTube views are in the ___’s” because I haven’t even cracked 10 is some cases. So just by the numbers alone, who would cover me?

But alas, 10 years of dipping my toes in the Toronto indie music scene must’ve put a black ball of cynicism in my being because I didn’t realize what a generous, kind, supportive, solidary and talented singer/songwriter scene I’ve joined since moving to Ottawa. A scene where Chrysalis, a free Ottawa-artists-covering-other-Ottawa-artists show could be put on, where TWO artists would end up covering songs of mine.

There’s a little known human emotion called elevation that is described as: “A mental ‘reset button’, wiping out feelings of cynicism and replacing them with feelings of hope, love, and optimism, and a sense of moral inspiration.”* Chrysalis was a beautiful, uplifting evening that moved everyone present. It was telling that there were zero Alanis Morissette covers and only one Paul Anka and one Kathleen Edwards cover….and yet 2 Blue Blue Satellite covers. Blows my mind…the singer/songwriter community here in Ottawa is THAT supportive, close, respectful and humble.

I’ll admit, when I first signed up, I didn’t “get it”. To cover an Ottawa artist seemed restrictive for the performer and the audience. But last weekend really opened my eyes. The point wasn’t to do a cover of Sweet Home Alabama and have the audience rock along with you. The point was to nurture and demonstrate the wealth of talent in this city with the spirit of community driving it all. I’d take that any day over a million YouTube views.

I’ve been trying to push the envelope of my songwriting lately because I find I have a songwriting comfort zone: melancholy tunes using a Travis fingerstyle guitar picking folk technique. So to shake myself out of this wordy safe zone, I’ve been trying new things, new styles, new themes, new techniques. Unlike most musicians these days I don’t know how to auto-tune or else I’d probably try that.

One new challenge is something some local Ottawa folk singer/songwriters have organized for 19 years now called the Great Canadian Song Along. Basically they give you a topic and you write a new song on it. It’s like a school assignment. With a lot less research, but equal opportunities for plagiarism.

Shortly after I made my mind up to participate in the Song Along, the unexpected thunderbolt of inspiration hit and I churned out the song over 3 days. And with no false modestly…it’s a gem! I’m especially proud of this one because it’s pure Blue Blue Satellite; I can’t detect any of my influences figuring predominantly in the songwriting. The chord progression is similar to Jewel’s “Amen”…uh, in fact, it’s the exact same chord progression, but despite this, I think the song stands quite capably on its own.

It’s ironic though. I signed up for this Song Along to push the envelope of my songwriting and ended up writing…you guessed it…a melancholy tune using a Travis fingerstyle guitar picking folk technique*. But it’s a helluva tune.

Haven’t had a chance to produce the song yet, but here’s me performing it at the Song Along minus the showstopping loop pedal finale that was stymied due to technical difficulties:

Let me tell you a story. A story of torturous decisions, of trying circumstances, of struggling against the odds….a story of…..heavy metal.

About a year ago I had a couple of days of vacation booked to go down to Sacramento to see Metallica live. Yes, Metallica. Literally hours before my flight, some s*** hit the fan at work. And when you’re on a Marketing team with limited resources, when s*** hits the fan, the scatological blast radius is all-encompassing. As evening wore into night(and as my early flight time loomed), the possibility that I’d have to cancel the trip and miss the concert became probability. It’s a good thing that the office was empty around midnight because I would have been bad company given the dark mood I was in.

After much agonizing though, I decided to go, dealing with the consequences as they came. And come they did as the situation worsened as I learned over costly long distance calls and text messages. By the time I got to Sacramento, I was out of my dark mood…and in a much dimmer, deeper, danker and dangerous one.

And then….the concert.

There is a holy moment when music connects with you. Really. Just. Connects. And like the alignment of the cosmos in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metallica, for one night only, was my Monolith. Being 28-year veteran Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, the band’s mastery of their technique and live show was something to behold. All the stress and tension from work didn’t just melt away but was lit on fire and cooked extra crispy in a hail of stage pyrotechnics and 115dB guitar shred. Never have I screamed along word-for-word and pumped my fist in the air with such reckless, furious abandonment than at this show.

I’ve been to a lot of concerts and many have been memorable spectacles in my life, but this concert, well this time…it was personal. And the frustration I was feeling from the “real world” took a back seat for a couple of hours as a monumental exercise in the power of music played out within me.

So the stigma of metal be damned. Or any type of music for that matter. I hope you’ve had or will one day have an experience similar to mine whether it be from a Metallica show, or a Justin Beiber show. Although it’d probably take another Metallica conert to allow me to vent the complications of attending a Beiber show…

It’s easy to become intimidated as a singer/songwriter; especially amongst other musicians. This one plays better guitar, that one has great vocal control, this one can name drop all sorts of obscure influences, that one has a handful of albums to their name. Well, I can claim none of these things. So how, pray-tell, do I not fold like a clean sheet of Hammermill whenever I take the stage at a gig or especially at an open mic where an underlying current of competition always festers? Well you have to realize one thing: every singer/songwriter writes pop music. I don’t care if you’re Robert Johnson, Bob Dylan or John Lennon…your bread and butter is the 3-5 minute song that will involve, at its core, four instruments.

Here’s the key: Rob, Bob and John-o are lucky, ‘cos if Mozart were here, he’d own all their asses.

You see, I was raised on Classical music. Now THOSE were musicians. When you’re writing operas and symphonies and concertos that can be hours long and you’re writing these for full orchestra, by hand, all by yourself…now *that’s* talent. Mozart had more talent in his pinky finger than Dylan, Johnson and Lennon combined. And I respect the hell out of those guys. You take the most legendary pop artist and compare them with the least of the Classical composers, and from a songwriting point of view, you’ve got yourself a fight between Mike Tyson and that weasely kid from Superbad.

So if you ever meet a songwriter who’s trying throw his weight around, just hand him a stack of manuscript paper and ask him to write you a three movement symphony for a 100-piece orchestra. It’s all relative…think of it in those terms and you’ve got for yourself a nice, level playing field.

Blue Blue Satellite

Concept album update:Well, I think I’ve locked down the concept and even the basic story. I’ve even sort of sketched out the story arc and how many songs it’ll take to tell it. I’m hopefully going to start writing the first song soon…but I realized that if this Concept Album is going to happen, it’s not going to happen for awhile because writing 8 or 9 songs is no small task. Stay tuned.

I was watching a film by Hideo Miyazaki, the Japanese animation master whose genius movies always fill me with awe and a deep, deep, sense of burning jealousy. Petty envy aside, his process is one of months, if not years. Meetings, storyboards, screen tests, and of course, pages of pages of painstaking frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation and still, in the end, a soul-stirring finished product. This kind of discipline astounds me…but it it inspires me too. And so, the question du jour:

If my best songwriting comes from short bursts of inspiration, how can I apply the epic scope of moviemaking to it?

This is not a rhetorical question. There is an answer. And I have the answer. And the answer comes in two words: Rock Opera. Or perhaps a different two words: Concept Album. Or if you like efficiency, one word: Musical.

All similar terms to describe the answer and the next Blue Blue Satellite challenge(for me, not you). Although “concept album” would be a bit of a misnomer seeing as I don’t even have a regular album to my name. And come to think of it, even “rock opera” doesn’t fit because I sing folk.

Oh well, call it what you will, I’m going to take up the challenge to express with thematically related songs a story with definite plot points, character arcs and, considering my inexperience as well as my laziness, deus ex machina after deus ex machina!

So, I won’t give myself a timeline. It’ll give me something to work on indefinitely rather than bore you guys with yet another song about unrequited love…unless of course, it was all just a dream.

Looking back at the Blue Blog, I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this topic before. If ever I had a pre-rehearsed, ranting opinion about something, it is the following:

Accusing an artist of selling out is itself a sellout.

I’m applying this specifically to musical criticisms, like when an artist switches styles, not when an artist hawks an ad or sells their song to a Burger King or a Grand Theft Auto.

First off, the sellout argument has been so over-used that it carries zero weight and tells your listener or reader nothing about your opinion. It’s like being anti-gay marriage and wading into the debate armed only with the already-specious “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” line. It’s lazy reasoning.

Secondly, if a songwriter who’s known for, say, deep, introspective lyrics decides to do a bubblegum pop album, as long as he or she still writes all their own songs, that’s not selling out. If you and only you are creating something artistic, no matter how “commercial” or “mainstream” it is, it’s still coming from your own creative force and that makes it unique and legit…i.e. not a sellout.

I’m saying all this because I’ve found that I’m running out of ideas for songs. Specifically, the lyrical theme of a song…i.e. the subject matter. I’d love to tell you that I’ve had a hard life and that I’ve hitchhiked coast to coast and met every type of man, woman and child along the way and therefore have a wealth of songs buried in me, but the truth is, I’m an average, middle class Canadian. So what does that mean for Blue Blue Satellite lyrics? It means….I lie. If I can’t come up with lyrics from the heart, I will make them up. That’s right. So if I write a song that sounds uber sincere, think twice…I just may want you to think it’s sincere. But, following from my “sellout” theory above, it’s the very fact that I want you to think it’s sincere that makes it sincere. It’s pretty much the songwriting equivalent of movie making. I’m sure Coppola would have loved to capture and chronicle the life and drama of a real mafia family in real-time, but since he couldn’t, he created a fictional account of one. But it doesn’t make it any less of a powerful film.

So here’s the twist. My latest song, “The Storyteller” is a song about all of this. I think the line “but even if there’s one attentive ear / you’ll see it drive away the doubt and fear” sums it all up. In the end, who really cares if a songwriter wrote a song, if it’s in line with their previous work, if they actually experienced what’s being sung, if you’re interpreting it as they intended? If you’re touched by a song, that’s what’s real and that’s all that matters.

When it comes to my vocals, I’ve always been the first to admit that it can use work. “Work” is an understatement, it needs slave labour. I’m not arrogant enough to reject vocal lessons, but until I actually take some, I cover up my weak singing with what I am only too arrogant to claim: great songwriting. But there is another way….

And that way is to add a vocal harmony of a voice that’s better than yours. If you are not familiar with the concept of harmony, it’s essentially the bread and butter of Simon & Garfunkel. Actually, it’s the “bread” of Simon & Garfunkel. The “butter” would probably be, you guessed it, songwriting. So add all that up; great singers, great harmonies, great songwriting equals legendary folk duo. Which is why they’re Simon & Garfunkel and I’m blogging about Simon & Garfunkel.

Anyway, I finally wrote a song that features a prominent vocal harmony by a close friend of mine. She was definitely one of the milestones in the early evolution of Blue Blue Satellite so I’m happy we were able to record this together and have it for the archives. I think our voices blend well and sure enough her quality voice redirects attention from my inferior one. The song is called “The Storyteller” and you can hear it in its entirety here:

Collaboration has never really been my strong suit when it comes to songwriting. I’ve always enjoyed being in control of my own songs; melody, music, lyrics, what-have-you. Live, though, the solo act does have serious limitations. Sure, all the attention is all on you and only you…a perk that I can assure you is not lost on me, but sometimes what is lost is the audience. When I got my loop pedal it upped the ante some, but even then, over-use that and you risk crossing over to being like those ridiculous, yet hilarious, one-man-bands with cymbals between his knees and a bass drum strapped to his back. The singer/songwriter/circus act is not a niche I’d like to corner…

So all that being said, nothing really beats a good band setup. A few months back, I cobbled together a one-time-only band and we jammed with the ghetto-est of gear but once again, the music rose above! It was a thrill for me to hear Sister Rachel, my “single” if you will, with a full band setup. Then at an Open Stage recently, I got the host, who is also a drummer, play along with my newer song “Thieves”…he nailed it and once again, the seed of expanding the Blue Blue Satellite head count germinated…

So this Sunday, I intend to go back to the Open Stage and do Sister Rachel and recruit the full house band if possible. Even just the addition of a drummer is an epic improvement over beating on my guitar body like some kind of organ grinder monkey and then looping it with the RC-2. Looking forward to it…for the first time, Blue Blue Satellite will rock!

I started my web presence on MySpace back in 2005. MySpace has always been good to me. Thank you MySpace. You gave me a means by which I can have my modest artist page and have my tunes streaming front and centre, showing off to the world how few people listen to my songs.

But the time has come to turn the (web)page. The only active thing left on the MySpace account was my blog which, bafflingly, got almost 3x the traffic that my songs had. The blog has been fun and will continue, but will continue here at WordPress. I’m sorry MySpace, your relevance is waning. Even your testament of how few people listen to me has been usurped …that job now goes to my YouTube channel.

BLUE BLUE SATELLITE MYSPACE BLOG READERS: Thank you for reading. I can’t believe you do, but the numbers don’t lie…so thank you. But the fun isn’t about to let up…welcome to the WordPress blog…please continue reading right here, right now.

I debuted my two of my newest songs live at an open stage the other night. It’s been awhile since I’ve played live and it was a good feeling to “be back” of sorts. I was at Supermarket in Kensington and this seems like a pretty high profile open stage. By which I mean it’s very much a showcase of people who want to show off. Me included.

It helps that there’s a full band setup on stage so there’s a wide range of musical styles represented. Which is a good opportunity for me to sit back and silently pass judgement on the acts. Yes, I’m that shallow and competitive. But not delusional though and I’ll readily admit that many of the acts schooled me. But mostly because they played a style of music that is very condusive to large, late night drinking crowds who really aren’t there to see you. So up-tempo full-band blues and rock jams always got a good response from the crowd. Singer/songwriters not so much.

But I was comforted in the fact that very few people are doing what I’m doing, which is moody folk songs using a finger picking guitar style. In *my* mind, that says that Blue Blue Satellite is unique. Realistically however, that says that nobody is interested in Blue Blue Satellite’s music. Whatever, while I’m still independent and “undiscovered” I’ll stay true to myself…which is a good thing because I’ll therefore probably be true to myself for a long time to come…